Part 4

Manisses or Monasses, as Block Island was called, is another form of the diminutive,--from munnoh; and Manhasset, otherwise written, Munhansick, a name of Shelter Island, is the same diminutive with the locative affix, munna-es-et. So is 'Manusses' or 'Mennewies,' an island near Rye, N.Y.,--now written (with the southern form of the locative,) Manussing.

Montauk Point, formerly Montauket, Montacut, and by Roger Williams, Munnawtawkit, is probably from manati, auke, and -it locative; 'in the Island country,' or 'country of the Islanders.'

The other name of 'Island,' in Algonkin languages, is AHQUEDNE or OCQUIDNE; with the locative; ahquednet, as in Acts xxvii. 16. (Compare, Cree, akootin, "it suspends, is sit-uate, e.g. an island in the water," from akoo, a verbal root "expressive of a state of rest." Howse's Grammar, p. 152. Micmac, agwitk, "it is in the water;" whence, Ep-agwit, "it lies [sits?] in the water," the Indian name of Prince Edward's Island.) This appears to have been restricted in its application, to islands lying near the main land or spoken of with reference to the main land. Roger Williams learned from the Narragansetts to call Rhode Island, Aquiday, Aquednet, &c., 'the Island' or 'at the Island,' and a "little island in the mouth of the Bay," was Aquedenesick, or Aquidneset, i.e. 'at the small island.'

Chippaquiddick, the modern name of an island divided by a narrow strait from Martha's Vineyard, is from cheppi-aquidne, 'separated island.'

Abnaki names ending in -katti, or -kontee (Mass. -kontu; Etchemin or Maliseet, -kodiah, -quoddy; Micmac, -kadi, or -aikadee;) may be placed with those of the first class, though this termination, representing a substantival component, is really only the locative affix of nouns in the indefinite plural. Exact location was denoted by affixing, to inanimate nouns-singular, -et, -it or -ut; proximity, or something less than exact location, by -set, (interposing s, the characteristic of diminutives and derogatives) between the noun and affix. Plural nouns, representing a definite number of individuals, or a number which might be regarded as definite, received -ettu, -ittu, or -uttu, in the locative: but if the number was indefinite, or many individuals were spoken of collectively, the affix was -kontu, denoting 'where many are,' or 'place of abundance.' For example, wadchu, mountain; wadchu-ut, to, on, or at the mountain; wadchu-set, near the mountain; wadchuuttu (or -ehtu), in or among certain mountains, known or indicated (as in Eliot's version of Numbers xxxiii. 47, 48); wadchue-kontu, among mountains, where there are a great many mountains, for 'in the hill country,' Joshua xiii. 6. So, nippe-kontu, 'in the waters,' i.e. in many waters, or 'where there is much water,' Deut. iv. 18; v. 8. In Deuteronomy xi. 11, the conversion to a verb of a noun which had previously received this affix, shows that the idea of abundance or of multitude is associated with it: "ohke wadchuuhkontu," i.e. wadechue-kontu-, "the land is a land of hills," that is, where are many hills, or where hills are plenty.

This form of verb was rarely used by Eliot and is not alluded to in his Grammar. It appears to have been less common in the Massachusetts than in most of the other Algonkin languages. In the Chippewa, an 'abundance verb,' as Baraga calls it, may be formed from any noun, by adding -ka or -[)i]ka for the indicative present: in the Cree, by adding -skow or -ooskow. In the Abnaki, -ka or -k, or -ik, forms similar verbs, and verbals. The final 'tti of katti, represents the impersonal a'tte, eto, 'there belongs to it,' 'there is there,' il y a. (Abn. meskiki'katti, 'where there is abundance of grass,' is the equivalent of the Micmac "m'skeegoo-aicadee, a meadow.")

Among Abnaki place-names having this form, the following deserve notice:--

Amesk-katti, 'where there is plenty of alewives or herrings;' from Abn. amsak (Narr. aumsuog; Mass. ommissuog, cotton;) literally, 'small fishes,' but appropriated to fish of the herring tribe, including alewives and menhaden or bony-fish. Rale gives this as the name of one of the Abnaki villages on or near the river 'Aghenibekki.' It is the same, probably, as the 'Meesee Contee' or 'Meesucontee,' at Farmington Falls, on Sandy River, Me. With the suffix of 'place' or 'land,' it has been written Amessagunticook and Amasaquanteg.

'Amoscoggin,' 'Ammarescoggen,' &c., and the 'Aumoughcawgen' of Capt. John Smith, names given to the Kennebec or its main western branch, the Androscoggin,--appear to have belonged, originally, to 'fishing places' on the river, from Abn. am'sa-khige, or am'sa-kagan. 'Amoskeag,' at the falls of the Merrimack, has the same meaning, probably; am'sa-khige (Mass. ommissakkeag), a 'fishing-place for alewives.' It certainly does not mean 'beavers,' or 'pond or marsh' of beavers,--as Mr. Schoolcraft supposed it to mean.

Madamiscomtis or Mattammiscontis, the name of a tributary of the Penobscot and of a town in Lincoln county, Me., was translated by Mr. Greenleaf, in 1823, "Young Alewive stream;" but it appears to represent met-amsak-katti, 'a place where there has been (but is not now) plenty of alewives,' or to which they no longer resort. Compare Rale's met-amak, "les poissons ont faites leurs oeufs; ils s'en sont alles; il n'y en a plus."

Cobbosseecontee river, in the south part of Kennebec county, is named from a place near "the mouth of the stream, where it adjoineth itself to Kennebec river," and 'where there was plenty of sturgeons,'--kabassak-katti.

'Peskadamioukkanti' is given by Charlevoix, as the Indian name of "the river of the Etchemins," that is, the St. Croix,--a name which is now corrupted to Passamaquoddy; but this latter form of the name is probably derived from the Etchemin, while Charlevoix wrote the Abnaki form. The Rev. Elijah Kellogg, in 1828, gave, as the meaning of 'Passamaquoddie,' 'pollock fish,' and the Rev. Mr. Rand translates 'Pestumoo-kwoddy' by 'pollock ground.' Cotton's vocabulary gives 'pakonnotam' for 'haddock.' Perhaps peskadamik, like amsak, belonged to more than one species of fish.

Of Etchemin and Micmac words having a similar termination, we find among others,--

Shubenacadie (Chebenacardie on Charlevoix' map, and Shebenacadia on Jeffry's map of 1775). One of the principal rivers of Nova Scotia, was so named because 'sipen-ak were plenty there.' Professor Dawson was informed by an "ancient Micmac patriarch," that "Shuben or Sgabun means ground-nuts or Indian potatoes," and by the Rev. Mr. Rand, of Hantsport, N.S., that "segubbun is a ground-nut, and Segubbuna-kaddy is the place or region of ground-nuts," &c. It is not quite certain that shuben and segubbun denote the same esculent root. The Abnaki name of the wild potato or ground-nut was pen, pl. penak (Chip. opin-[=i]g; Del. obben-ak); 'sipen,' which is obviously the equivalent of sheben, Rale describes as "blanches, plus grosses que des penak:" and sheep'n-ak is the modern Abnaki (Penobscot) name for the bulbous roots of the Yellow Lily (Lilium Canadense). Thoreau's Indian guide in the 'Maine Woods' told him that these bulbs "were good for soup, that is to cook with meat to thicken it,"--and taught him how to prepare them. Josselyn mentions such "a water-lily, with yellow flowers," of which "the Indians eat the roots" boiled.

"Segoonuma-kaddy, place of gaspereaux; Gaspereau or Alewife River," "Boonamoo-kwoddy, Tom Cod ground," and "Kata-kaddy, eel-ground,"--are given by Professor Dawson, on Mr. Rand's authority. Segoonumak is the equivalent of Mass. and Narr. sequanamauquock, 'spring (or early summer) fish,' by R. Williams translated 'bream.' And boonamoo,--the ponamo of Charlevoix (i. 127), who confounded it with some 'species of dog-fish (chien de mer),'--is the apna-mes of Rasles and paponaumsu, 'winter fish,' of Roger Williams, 'which some call frost-fish,'--Morrhua pruinosa.

The frequent occurrence of this termination in Micmac, Etchemin and Abnaki local names gives probability to the conjecture, that it came to be regarded as a general name for the region which these tribes inhabited,--'L'arcadia,' 'l'Accadie,' and 'la Cadie,' of early geographers and voyagers. Dr. Kohl has not found this name on any earlier map than that published by Girolamo Ruscelli in 1561. That it is of Indian origin there is hardly room for doubt, and of two or three possible derivations, that from the terminal -kadi, -kodiah, or -katti, is on the whole preferable. But this termination, in the sense of 'place of abundance' or in that of 'ground, land, or place,' cannot be used separately, as an independent word, in any one of the languages which have been mentioned; and it is singular that, in two or three instances, only this termination should have been preserved after the first and more important component of the name was lost.

There are two Abnaki words which are not unlike -katti in sound, one or both of which may perhaps be found in some local names: (1) kadi, 'where he sleeps,' a lodging place of men or animals; and (2) akdaii, in composition or as a prefix, akde, 'against the current,' up-stream; as in ned-akte'hemen, 'I go up stream,' and derakdana, 'the fish go up stream.' Some such synthesis may have given names to fishing-places on tidal rivers, and I am more inclined to regard the name of 'Tracadie' or 'Tracody' as a corruption of derakda, than to derive it (with Professor Dawson and the Rev. Mr. Rand) from "Tulluk-kaddy; probably, place of residence; dwelling place,"--or rather (for the termination requires this), where residences or dwellings are plenty,--where there is abundance of dwelling place. There is a Tracadie in Nova Scotia, another (Tregate, of Champlain) on the coast of New Brunswick, a Tracody or Tracady Bay in Prince Edward's Island, and a Tracadigash Point in Chaleur Bay.

Thevet, in La Cosmographie universelle, gives an account of his visit in 1556, to "one of the finest rivers in the whole world which we call Norumbegue, and the aborigines Agoncy,"--now Penobscot Bay. In 'Agoncy' we have, I conjecture, another form of the Abnaki -katti, and an equivalent of 'Acadie.'

* * * * *

II. Names formed from a single ground-word or substantival,--with or without a locative or other suffix.

To this class belong some names already noticed in connection with compound names to which they are related; such as, Wachu-set, 'near the mountain;' Menahan (Menan), Manati, Manathaan, 'island;' Manataan-ung, Aquedn-et, 'on the island,' &c. Of the many which might be added to these, the limits of this paper permit me to mention only a few.

1. NAIAG, 'a corner, angle, or point.' This is a verbal, formed from na-i, 'it is angular,' 'it corners.' Eliot wrote "yaue naiyag wetu" for the "four corners of a house," Job i. 19. Sometimes, nai receives, instead of the formative -ag, the locative affix (nai-it or nai-ut); sometimes it is used as an adjectival prefixed to auke, 'land.' One or another of these forms serves as the name of a great number of river and sea-coast 'points.' In Connecticut, we find a 'Nayaug' at the southern extremity of Mason's Island in Mystic Bay, and 'Noank' (formerly written, Naweag, Naiwayonk, Noiank, &c.) at the west point of Mystic River's mouth, in Groton; Noag or Noyaug, in Glastenbury, &c. In Rhode Island, Nayatt or Nayot point in Barrington, on Providence Bay, and Nahiganset or Narragansett, 'the country about the Point.' On Long Island, Nyack on Peconick Bay, Southampton, and another at the west end of the Island, opposite Coney Island. There is also a Nyack on the west side of the Tappan Sea, in New Jersey.

2. WONKUN, 'bended,' 'a bend,' was sometimes used without affix. The Abnaki equivalent is aghighen, 'courbe,' 'croche' (Rale). There was a Wongun, on the Connecticut, between Glastenbury and Wethersfield, and another, more considerable, a few miles below, in Middletown. Wonki is found in compound names, as an adjectival; as in Wonki-tuk, 'bent river,' on the Quinebaug, between Plainfield and Canterbury,--written by early recorders, 'Wongattuck,' 'Wanungatuck,' &c., and at last transferred from its proper place to a hill and brook west of the river, where it is disguised as Nunkertunk. The Great Bend between Hadley and Hatfield, Mass., was called Kuppo-wonkun-ohk, 'close bend place,' or 'place shut-in by a bend.' A tract of meadow west of this bend was called, in 1660, 'Cappowonganick,' and 'Capawonk,' and still retains, I believe, the latter name. Wnogquetookoke, the Indian name of Stockbridge, Mass., as written by Dr. Edwards in the Muhhecan dialect, describes "a bend-of-the-river place."

Another Abnaki word meaning 'curved,' 'crooked,'--pikaghen--occurs in the name Pikaghenahik, now 'Crooked Island,' in Penobscot River.

3. HOCQUAUN (UHQUON, Eliot), 'hook-shaped,' 'a hook,'--is the base of Hoccanum, the name of a tract of land and the stream which bounds it, in East Hartford, and of other Hoccanums, in Hadley and in Yarmouth, Mass. Heckewelder wrote "Okhucquan, Woakhucquoan or (short) Hucquan," for the modern 'Occoquan,' the name of a river in Virginia, and remarked: "All these names signify a hook." Campanius has 'hockung' for 'a hook.'

Hackensack may have had its name from the hucquan-sauk, 'hook mouth,' by which the waters of Newark Bay find their way, around Bergen Point, by the Kill van Cul, to New York Bay.

3. [Transcriber's Note: sic] SOHK or SAUK, a root that denotes 'pouring out,' is the base of many local names for 'the outlet' or 'discharge' of a river or lake. The Abnaki forms, sagk, 'sortie de la riviere (seu) la source,' and saghede'tege [= Mass. saukituk,] gave names to Saco in Maine, to the river which has its outflow at that place, and to Sagadahock (saghede'aki), 'land at the mouth' of Kennebeck river.

Saucon, the name of a creek and township in Northampton county, Penn., "denotes (says Heckewelder) the outlet of a smaller stream into a larger one,"--which restricts the denotation too narrowly. The name means "the outlet,"--and nothing more. Another Soh'coon, or (with the locative) Saukunk, "at the mouth" of the Big Beaver, on the Ohio,--now in the township of Beaver, Penn.,--was a well known rendezvous of Indian war parties.